Monday 21 December 2015

Shïppa-63 Q&A

Your name: 
My real name is Mark Hoy…

Where are you from? 
A humble Maths teacher from Kingscliff, New South Wales, Australia. But my alter-ego is…

Name of band:
Shïppa-63.

Who else is in your band?
Shïppa-63 is a solo band, rather than a solo-artist or one-man band. I want to achieve a full three-four piece rock band sound. All vocals and instruments are by me. As I am the only member, I take all the credit and criticism, so that I can share it evenly amongst the others.

How would you describe yourselves and your music? 
My music is very heavily influenced by Brit-rock/pop/punk, especially of the 80s and 90s, and some of the 00s… This could be due to the fact that I was born in Enfield, Middlesex, and have always had some kind of psychic bind with the UK…or I just love the music that I grew up with.

Who are your main influences musically? 
I would have to say bands like Radiohead, Muse, Elbow, Blur, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Cure, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Fischer-Z etc. More recent bands, such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Doves have also had an effect on my musical stylings. Oh, and I would have to say that my mum was a huge influence in my love of music. She was a cabaret singer in her younger days…brilliant voice.

What do you hope to achieve in music? 
Music is a passion and a therapy for me. I hope that I can covey and convert this passion and share my tracks with as many people that I can. I have always wanted to be able to perform in a band, creating my own stuff, and being able to reproduce it live would be my ultimate goal. It’s difficult when there is only one of me…but you never know.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why? 
Having a song selected for a compilation CD early on was one highlight, being interviewed on the radio and hearing my tracks played was another, but getting positive feedback from John Watts (Fischer-Z) for a cover I did of his track Pretty Paracetamol was pretty much up there…he is one of my musical heroes. Oh, and last week I was put on a playlist on Italian Radio with The Killers, Oasis, Supergrass, Muse, Blur and Radiohead…now that was kinda special (as you can probably tell, I’m easily pleased).

And what’s the moment you want to forget? 
I guess at this stage there haven’t been any real things I’d like to forget along by brief musical journey. It’s a learning curve, so if any glitch occurs, I take it as a lesson to be learned and move on.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why? 
It is difficult to say which song best represents my music, as it often depends on the mood I’m in as to which one I’d pick. But…I would say that There & Back (Again) would be the track I’d pick, as it turned out almost exactly as I had planned it (in my head…I can’t read or write music!). It’s a song about my frustration with politicians, and how they promise to take you to a better place, but you always end up back where you started. The vocals are in the style of John Watts (falsetto in places), and all instruments are played by me (as they are on all my tracks). I have only just started to learn what I can do with a guitar, so I was happy with what transpired in the recording.

Where can we listen to it? 



Where can we find out more about your music? 
You can find my tracks on:
…as well as my Social Media pages:

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask? 
I am fully aware with how difficult it is to make a career out of music. I’m definitely keeping my day job, but when music is a passion, you just want to enjoy it while you can. I plan to keep making music for as long as I can, and if others enjoy it, well, so be it. If they don’t, well at least I tried (and enjoyed myself in the process). Thanks so much for asking me to join in your musical journey.

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